Summit is ‘Blegnant’?
Recently whilst learning my face off at SXSWedu in Austin, Texas, I had the opportunity to hear more about Summit Public Schools and their work towards blended and personalized learning from some of their partner districts. It was awesome to hear from educators who are so inspired and motivated…remembering myself as a beta pilot teacher, and the excitement I felt to be on the BLEEDING cutting edge of the since failed Amplify Tablet project (not my fault, PROMISE).
In my current role as Director of the iTeach Crew, it is essential that I am able to digest and synthesize for those we support. And without fail, the most burning question in the field of personalized learning now is: ‘Show me what it looks like’!
Summit has hooked up with Facebook, and they are ‘Blegnant’!
Duh- to those who haven’t yet caught on… They are pregnant with a blended learning lovechild!
BASECAMP is being born as we speak, but just like any other pregnant momma, Summit Public Schools had to change their entire way of life in anticipation of their new bundle of joy. Also like every other momma, they’ve realized that a nine month pregnancy is a myth, and that you shouldn’t enter into parenthood unless you’re ready to dedicate more time and energy than you ever thought you had.
Let’s break it down by the numbers: In the last 5 years, Summit has committed 40 days to professional development EACH YEAR. So that is 8 work weeks per year…5 years…that’s 40 weeks, the exact length of a ‘normal’ gestation.
So, you can either grow a HUMAN, or do blended learning.
I worry just a bit about this, the message of investment, incubation, and scale, failing to translate to other K-12 institutions. We worry so much about drafting behind great models, that sometimes we forget to have #realtalk about scalability and execution. Summit has started a waitlist to make their PLP platform available to individual teachers, and it will remain free. You can join the waitlist HERE.
Summit Basecamp currently has Partnership Programs that include a total of 19 schools…4,800 Students, 270 Teachers. Here’s a Map. Most of these are middle and high schools and for someone like me who taught in a district with almost 100,000 students, about 100 schools, and 7,500 teachers…these just aren’t implementations that make me pay attention…yet!
I’ll be following this Bleg-nancy closely, and living a bit vicariously. I’m in the business of hooking up with people to make Personalized Learning a reality…so I may yet have much to learn from Summit, including how to find a baby-daddy as lucrative as Facebook!
All opinions are my own and do not represent the views of anyone who agrees to be seen with me in public.
